Illinois Beach State Park: Expect the Unexpected

 I had two interesting experiences at Illinois Beach State Park during a hike in June of 2020:

The first was realizing there was yet another insect that is dependent on milkweed: Cycnia inopinatus, the unexpected cycnia moth. I found this one on Asclepias tuberosa, butterfly weed.

I actually thought it was a weird instar of the milkweed tussock moth, Euchaetes egle, initially. I certainly was not expecting this caterpillar! I love learning more about the nature around me.

The second was finding out dung beetles live in the same town I grew up in!

How cool are those?! I have hiked and volunteered in IBSP quite a bit and never knew about dung beetles!

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Keeping this one short and sweet because I'm working on the NC trip posts!

Road Trip Up North: Wisconsin Nature Adventures with Alaina

For the second year in a row I was able to tag along with my wonderful friend Alaina when she visited her family in Northern Wisconsin. 

We started out as coworkers at my first hotel job years ago and quickly became friends. We had dreamed of being able to go to her hometown, and she would tell me stories of what it was like growing up that far north. For years we planned on going to Copper Falls someday, but the first time I was able to make the trip, there was a downpour so we did a rain check quite literally.

On this second trip the weather was perfect. Not a rain cloud in sight! Alaina dressed in neutral greys, and I threw on a pink shirt. Naturally, I couldn't go on the hike we had been waiting ten years for without a souvenir hat, so a quick jaunt to the only gas station in town was in order for my green plaid Up North hat. Obnoxious combo of green and pink? Check. All set for out hike!

The smile of someone who knows she cannot escape now.

 

Off we went to Copper Falls State Park. It was about an hour and a half drive, but long stretches of road with Alaina is never problem. We finally arrived and after parking, my feet hit the pavement and I just felt a sense of accomplishment. Over ten years of promising my best friend we would hike Copper Falls! And finally, finally, we were here! And so we went onwards, onto the dirt path, over bridges, up and down steps.

Alaina had to poke fun at me because I immediately jumping into taking photos of a plant. But there was a plant AND a bug! :)

You'd think after hiking with me at Big Falls on the last trip, poor Alaina would have ran away screaming at the thought of a second hike with me. Not only did she not scream (or, at least she screamed internally!) she invited me to go on an hours long road trip that would include even more hiking! Well, shit happens.

No, really, it does. And sometimes butterflies are involved.

We stumbled upon this sight about halfway into our hike, fortunately for me but not so much Alaina. I may or may not have been on my elbows and knees, hovering around poo butterflies, and taking no less than thirty (30) pictures of this scene. I didn't look behind me but I'm pretty sure Alaina was face palming the whole time. 

After the pooperfly incident, we moved along and I noticed two plants: teeny tiny Myosotis arvensis and graceful Cornus canadensis!

And all throughout the hike we saw some impressive views. There were many beautiful waterfalls and gorgeous gorges to see. The Bad River was a pretty consistent sight during the hike.

After all those beautiful views, once we made it back to the car we had a sense of accomplishment. After all these years of planning, and after one disappointing year of being so close but not being able to go...we did it! I am so grateful to Alaina and her family for their hospitality, and the opportunity to go on adventures!

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Click here for more photos!

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I think I had planned on typing up more at the end there, but I've been going through a lot of med changes and depressive episodes, so I started slacking on this post. At this point I just need to get it posted since I have more posts from last year in drafts and I have to type up about more recent adventures before my memories fade too much!

Wordless Wednesdays: Wildflowers

 

2020 Recap

 What a crazy year. It has been far too long since I last posted; I got caught up in work. In fact, I think this is the first time I've touched my laptop since the previous post.

Where to start? Well, during the pandemic I worked as closing manager at a fast food restaurant. I won't go into too much detail as I want to get to the nature part of this post, but it was very difficult. The pandemic made everything hectic. I was constantly worried about catching the virus, amid being treated like dirt by customers, and given impossible numbers to meet by the District Manager.

While working, my mental health, family, and home life took a major hit. When I wasn't at work or sleeping, I threw myself into whatever nature-related activities I could do, in order to keep what precious sanity I had. I barely saw my husband or kids aside from our nature outings, and I neglected my chores, leaving them all to my husband, who also had a stressful full-time job.

I was fortunate enough to quit that job around November in order to focus on my family and mental health full-time. I realised there was still too much of me unhealed, and I had a major breakthrough via a corrected diagnosis: I did not have MDD after all; for 15 years I was taking meds for the wrong thing. It was actually bipolar II.

So, here I am, weaning off my previous meds, and about to be put on new ones. I also have GAD so I will have to take something for the depression, the hypomania, and the anxiety. Hopefully that helps me function better without any crazy side effects. I guess I will see.

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Now that a general update is out of the way, here's a quick recap of 2020 as far as nature goes!

(January was pretty uneventful, aside from my birthday, so I'll skip that month!)

February

This was right before the pandemic really took off. I'm not sure when exactly I started hearing about the mystery virus, but I believe it was late February. I was fortunate enough to go to Chicago Botanic's Orchid Show: Brilliance a day or two before they decided to shut it down. We also managed to take the kids to visit The Grove for the first time, where we saw a bunch of cool critters as well as historical buildings and items. I will make a separate post for the neat experiences we had there.

March

Since CBG was still open, I went several times, but honestly this is when everything kind of went to Hell with the virus, so I don't remember much, aside from being delighted at the sight of double Galanthus.

April

Work was crazy busy and stressful in a way it hadn't been pre-pandemic. All I remember is working myself to near death, finding more lawn crocuses, and seeking out spring ephemerals as much as I could in order to get through another workweek. There were times that, mid-hike, I was called in to work. I spent less and less time in our garden at home because I was just so busy.

May

Steve and I bought a bunch of annuals and filled planters with them, and we finally bought azaleas. I had a lot of cool experiences while hiking, like finding a Claytonia virginica with 6 petals.

June

I went hiking up in northern WI with one of my best friends after quitting my job for the first time. I will make a separate post to go more in depth about that trip. :)

I also saw two cool bugs I'd never seen before, let alone knew were present right here at home in Lake County, IL: the unexpected cycnia moth and a dung beetle! 

July

This month had my favourite nature experience, though there were many contenders for 2020. I went hiking through Somme Prairie Grove with Steve, where I finally met Asclepias pupurascens! And yes, you guessed it; I'll be posting about that, too. I had some other incredible nature moments: when I happened upon a rare parasitic bee in a forest preserve near home, when I stumbled across destroying angel fungi, and then when I found a bolete infected with Hypomyces sp.; the latter two were at Petrifying Springs State Park in Wisconsin.

There were some other really cool happenings in the pollinator garden this month, but that's a story for another post.

August

I went to CBG a few times (the pandemic made me reluctant to go often, even with timed entry), and spent a lot of time just admiring the pollinator garden at home whenever I was able to. I was working until anywhere between 1am up to 4am so I slept in a lot when I was home.

September

I suffered a lot in September. I had a very rough depressive episode that I frankly did not have time to properly navigate. It was around this time that I started thinking about quitting my job again, but I felt guilty and did not. I managed to drag myself out of the house a few times in late September for some fresh air.

October 

I felt like a stranger in our own garden. I hardly did any actual gardening in months, and by this time I was so swamped with work, I didn't even have the energy to take much of a stroll around the yard. I did manage to go to a pumpkin farm with Steve and the kids to pick out pumpkins, do a corn maze, and drink hot cider with fresh cider donuts.

November

This is where I snapped. I decided that it was time to take a mental health break from any job. Zero regrets about doing what I needed to take my life back. I took advantage of the little bit of autumn left by wandering for hours in Somme Woods, IBSP, and a couple other sites.

December

The following few months after quitting were pretty rough. I had two more terrible depressive episodes, both followed by terrible hypomanic episodes. Thankfully, I was able to spend all the time I needed in bed. And despite the addition of seasonal depression and the pandemic still raging, I at least had holiday cheer in December to keep me from feeling like I hit rock bottom. At the end of each day I reminded myself that at the very least, my family and I were healthy and safe in such rough times.

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So what's next? Part of my healing involves a lot of time outside and in the garden at home. I'm not sure what job I will do next, or when I will get around to that. I'm just focusing on getting better for now.

As per usual, I have an album full of photos I didn't post here. Click here to see additional pics.

And if you didn't know, I microblog on Instagram at @efflorescency. I hope everyone is well and staying safe. I am excited for what treasures nature has in this new year!